Nutritionists recommend eating a varied diet. Ideally, your daily meals should include all food groups so they can provide your body with the nutrients needed for optimum health. The best diets out there are high in protein, healthy fats, and carbs as well as micronutrients. Have you ever asked yourself what would happen if you had access to only one type of food for months or years? Could you survive under these conditions?
According to researchers, there are plenty of foods that provide the nutrients needed to survive. Avocado, potatoes, chia seeds, and bananas boast optimal ratios of macro and micronutrients. Surprisingly, meat doesn’t fit into this category. Even though it’s rich in protein, it lacks fiber, vitamins, carbs, and other essential nutrients. Fruits and veggies do have plenty of vitamins, but are low in protein.
If you could choose just one food to live on, it should be the humble potato. This starch contains decent amounts of protein, vitamins, minerals, and fiber as well as antioxidants. The downside is that a larger person would need to eat potatoes in large amounts to meet his/her daily nutrient requirements. These foods are low in fat, zinc, and B vitamins, but offer reasonable doses of vitamin A, vitamin E, calcium, and iron.
Sweet potatoes boast a higher nutritional value compared to white varieties. For this reason, they are a staple in any athlete’s diet. Studies conducted over the years indicate that people could survive on potatoes only. A diet that includes milk and oatmeal in addition to potatoes would provide all the nutrients required for health, with the exception of molybdenum.
However, this is just an experiment. Beyond pure nutrition, there are many other issues that make it hard to survive on just one food. First of all, the body has a built-in mechanism that causes it to reject foods that are consumed too often. For instance, if you only ate pudding for days or weeks, you would end up feeling nauseous after a few bites. As a result, you would eat less and less, which would deprive your body of calories and nutrients. Without a doubt, a varied diet is the best way to maintain your health and prevent nutrient deficiencies.
